"Use your own judgment," Washington said, after it was noted that Hamilton was starting for a second straight game in center field, that Julio Borbon's playing time has been cut of late, and that David Murphy would have been the starting left fielder over Craig Gentry on Friday against Colorado had he not been felled by a stomach illness.

Said one baseball scout: "Hamilton has to play center field, because no one else has stepped up and taken the job."

A likely scenario is that Hamilton will start in center field against right-handers and shift to left field against left-handers. The left-handed-hitting Murphy would be the left fielder against righties, and the right-handed-hitting Gentry would start in center against lefties with Hamilton shifting to left.